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About the book:
D.M. Thomas built his reputation and his controversy on this single novel.
What begins as an erotic poem and a Freudian case study the psychological portrait of a woman's obsessive fantasies ends in documented historical horror at Babi Yar.
The collision is the point.
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1981. Critics split violently on it; nobody forgot it.
Thomas spent years as a poet and translator of Akhmatova before this.
Read it if you want to understand what literary fiction can do that no other form can.
Good secondhand condition.
Some wear on cover.
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About the author:
D.M. Thomas (1935 to 2023)
Born Donald Michael Thomas in Redruth, Cornwall, D.M. Thomas was a British novelist, poet, and acclaimed translator. He studied at Oxford and later taught English at the University of Exeter before becoming a full-time writer. Though he published poetry and several novels, he is best remembered for one extraordinary book that catapulted him to international fame.
The White Hotel (1981) is his masterpiece a daring, haunting, and controversial novel that blends erotic fantasy, Freudian psychoanalysis, and the horrors of the Holocaust in a completely original way. The book became a global bestseller, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and established Thomas as one of the most ambitious British writers of his generation. It remains a powerful and unsettling work that challenges the boundaries between imagination, memory, and historical trauma.
Thomas had a deep love for Russian literature and was a highly regarded translator of Pushkin and Anna Akhmatova, which strongly influenced his own writing style lyrical, psychologically intense, and unafraid of difficult subject matter. His novels often explore the interplay between sex, death, history, and the unconscious mind, frequently using bold formal experiments.
Major works include:
Though his later work never quite matched the impact of The White Hotel, D.M. Thomas remains a significant and courageous voice in late 20th-century British fiction a writer who was willing to confront the darkest aspects of the human psyche with both sensuality and intellectual rigour.
Perfect for readers who enjoy literary fiction that is both intellectually demanding and emotionally powerful, especially fans of Kundera, Eco, or historical novels with a psychological edge.
